The advisory committee, led by Dr Amiya Hati, has asked the KMC to use rapid action test kits for testing blood samples round the year. The committee has also suggested the civic body to get its laboratory technicians trained from the School of Tropical Medicine (STM).

“We will procure the rapid action test kits soon. Initially, we will appeal to the state health department for supplying the test kits,” said Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.

He added:“If the state health department is not able to supply the kits, we will then procure the kits from our resources.”

However, the civic authorities are yet to decide on the training programmes of the laboratory technicians as there was an enquiry commission to investigate how some untrained laboratory technicians were recruited by the health department of the KMC.